Homily on the Sinful Woman Who Anointed the Lord with Myrrh, and on the Pharisee (St. Amphilochios of Iconium)

Homily on the Sinful Woman Who Anointed the Lord with Myrrh, and on the Pharisee 

Discourse 4

By St. Amphilochios of Iconium

Christ sufficiently delighted us before, dining at the house of Zacchaeus; for where Christ is entertained and reclines together with men and partakes of drink and of table that is ours, all things are transformed into the condition of joy.

For who, whether of tax collectors or of harlots or of those who have worked unspeakable evils, seeing the Maker of heaven and earth having come under a tax collector’s roof, and the Giver of the ears of grain taking bread of men into His hands, and the Provider of the clusters blessing the winepresses by participation in the drink, would not judge the matter to be a feast and a festival?

This is truly a feast, this truly the gladness of an angelic banquet: to see the Master with servants, God with men, the Judge with those under judgment, partaking of a common table.

For this reason He came upon the earth, not having left heaven deserted, and became man, not having stripped off being God, in order that, sailing also upon the sea, He might draw up from the depth of sin those storm-tossed in the sea of life, and going about villages and cities, running through narrow ways and paths and roads, He might lead back to His own flock those wandering at the crossroads like sheep without a shepherd.

Great Wednesday: The Tears of Repentance (Elder Ephraim of Arizona)

 

Great Wednesday: The Tears of Repentance 

By Elder Ephraim of Arizona

Time is constantly shortening; it is continually diminishing. Every day that passes is another step toward death. Know this: even a single tear is equal to a cleansing bath. Just as a bath refreshes the body and washing cleanses a garment, so the tears of a repentant soul purify the heart, purify the mind, purify the body, purify life, purify speech, and even purify every expression of a person.

We should kneel and pray with great humility. To every repentant soul is given a word; it is given enlightened prayer. We see this in the sinful woman of the Gospel on Great Wednesday. How did she, a woman of the streets, know how to pray? Yet from the moment she decided to repent and began to turn toward the light and toward the truth, the spirit of prayer was given to her.

How beautiful are her words before the Savior! She knelt before Him and surely entered into an inner dialogue with Him. With her whole heart she expressed her repentance, because it had been revealed to her that He alone was her Savior and that all others had deceived her. She saw that only Jesus Christ could give her light, relief, joy, and the forgiveness of her many sins.

Holy Wednesday: The Offering of the Nous and the Heart to God

Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos, 
Preacher of the Sacred Metropolis of Patras

On Holy and Great Tuesday, a great multitude of people hastens to the churches in order to hear, with deep emotion, the hymn of the hymnographer Kassiani, which refers to the sinful woman of the Gospel and her profound repentance. Yet only a few from this crowd truly enter into the depth of the event, deciding to imitate the change of life and the love that the sinful woman showed toward the God-man Lord.

This sinful woman realized her sinfulness and the mire of immorality into which she had fallen, and, recognizing that the One before her was the Redeemer and Savior of souls and bodies, she decided to approach Him. She gave up her possessions and bought the most precious myrrh of that time in order to anoint His feet, thus showing her faith and love for Him.

Coming to our own time and to the personal life of each of us, let us ask ourselves: what do we offer to God as a sign of love for Him and of sincere repentance for our disobedience to His will? Do we offer Him, instead of myrrh, what is most precious to us? And the most precious thing a person possesses is his heart, that is, his inner world and his nous.

Ten Misconceptions About the Mystery of Holy Unction

There are quite a few common misconceptions about Holy Unction (Ευχέλαιο, literally Prayer Oil) in the Orthodox Church — some wrong but harmless, others spiritually misleading and serious. Most come from reducing a deep Mystery into something external or “automatic.” Here are the main ones, explained clearly:

1. “Holy Unction is mainly for physical healing”

Misconception:
People often think Unction exists primarily to cure illness or prevent disease.

Reality:
Physical healing can happen, but the primary purpose is healing of the soul — forgiveness of sins, spiritual strengthening, and restoration of the whole person.

👉 The Church prays for both body and soul — but always prioritizes the soul.

Two Examples, One to Imitate and the Other to Reject (Great Wednesday) - Fr. George Dorbarakis

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

“The harlot loosened the hair of her head for You, the Master. Judas stretched out his hands to the lawless. The one, in order to receive forgiveness of her sins; the other, in order to receive money” (Aposticha).

This evening (Holy Tuesday) our Church sets before us two examples: one positive and one negative. One to imitate, the other to reject. A harlot woman and a disciple of the Lord. And, obviously, one might say that the positive and good example would be the disciple of Christ, while the negative would be the harlot woman. But things, as we all surely know, are reversed: the harlot is presented as the one we must imitate — even throughout our whole life — while the disciple is presented as the one we must turn away from, lest we too be led, like him, to destruction.

And this is understandable: the harlot is the one who became the timeless model — not of her immorality, of course, but of the repentance she showed when she felt the grace and love of the Lord. The disciple Judas is the one who is rejected throughout the ages — not, of course, because of his enviable position of being beside the Lord as His disciple, but because of the betrayal he ultimately chose toward his Teacher.

Prologue in Sermons: April 8

A Great Reward Awaits the Person Who Saves his Neighbor from Bodily and Spiritual Death

April 8

(A story about a maiden who showed mercy to a debtor who was about to hang himself.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

You will certainly agree with me, brothers, that a great reward awaits the person who saves his neighbor from bodily death. But do you know that a double reward awaits the one who saves his neighbor from a double death — that is, from both bodily and spiritual death? If you do not know, we will now explain this to you.

In Alexandria of Egypt, after the death of her parents, a young maiden was left alone with great wealth. One day, while walking in her garden, she saw a man who had prepared a noose and was about to hang himself.

“What are you doing?” the maiden asked in horror.

The unfortunate man replied: “Leave me, maiden, for I am in great distress!”

The maiden said: “Tell me the cause of your distress, and I will help you as much as I can.”

He answered: “I am overwhelmed with debts, and my creditors give me no rest, demanding that I repay what I owe. No, better for me to die than to live such a miserable life!”

Homily One for Holy Tuesday (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily One for Holy Tuesday
 
By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride

“As the Lord was going toward His voluntary Passion, He said to the Apostles on the way: ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered up, as it is written of Him.' Come then, let us also go with Him, purified in mind, and be crucified with Him, and put to death for His sake the pleasures of this life, that we may also live with Him.” (Vespers, Sticheron 1)

When the Lord said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,” one of them cried out on behalf of all: “Let us also go, that we may die with him!” (John 11:11, 16). Now, brothers, the time has come not for the death of Lazarus, but for the death of our Lord Himself, who says that “after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (Matt. 26:2).

Will any of us hesitate to say: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him”? But it is not enough merely to say this — we must fulfill it in reality. With Lazarus, one could avoid dying; but with our Lord and Savior, we must certainly die.

The Troparion of Kassiani (Photios Kontoglou)

The Troparion of Kassiani 

By Photios Kontoglou

Kassiani — also called Kassia or Ikasia — lived during the reign of Emperor Theophilos in Constantinople, from 829 to 842 AD. She came from a noble family, and for this reason she was among the most beautiful and most educated young women who were gathered at the palace so that the emperor could choose the best one as his wife.

But she lost the crown because of her intelligence. As the emperor passed in front of her, he was struck by her beauty and modesty, and, wanting to tease her, he said: “From woman came evil,” meaning that Eve brought the curse upon humanity. Kassiani replied: “But from woman also came what is better,” meaning that the Most Holy Theotokos brought salvation into the world. Then Theophilos, judging that she was too intelligent to take as his wife, gave the apple to Theodora and married her.

Kassiani then became a nun and built a monastery, which survived until the later years of the Byzantine Empire and was called Ikasion. There she spent her life in fasting and deep devotion. Her favorite work was reading and writing. Among the hymns she composed, the hymn of the Sinful Woman is the most famous; it is known as “the Hymn of Kassiani” and is chanted on the evening of Great Tuesday.

Let Us Not Remain Outside the Bridal Chamber of Christ (Great Tuesday) - Fr. George Dorbarakis

Let Us Not Remain Outside the Bridal Chamber of Christ (Great Tuesday) 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

“Having understood the hour of the end, O soul, and having feared the cutting down of the fig tree, diligently work the talent given to you, O wretched one, keeping watch and crying out: Let us not remain outside the bridal chamber of Christ.”

1. The above kontakion of Holy Tuesday, in a few lines, sets before us the course of true life in Christ. “Let us not remain outside the bridal chamber of Christ”: the Hymnographer, that is, our Church, calls us not to remain outside the bridal chamber of Christ. What is the bridal chamber? It is Christ Himself and our relationship with Him. He is the Bridegroom and every believer is the bride-soul. Our aim is precisely to remain always united with Him, as happens in the relationship between bridegroom and bride. This constitutes both Paradise and the Kingdom of God. For this reason He came and became man: to receive us and incorporate us into His holy Body, the Church; to make us branches of the tree that is Himself. “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Each believer, after holy baptism — by which he has put on Christ — becomes an extension of Him, another manifestation of His presence in the world.